Well, that’s the first match of the weekend out of the way. Being nice chaps, we’re giving you the chance to vote for your MOTM, thereby ignoring the idiocy of the professional pundits. A poll for the England -v- Scotland MOTM will be posted tomorrow morning.

Did anyone see a bit in the Ire/Wales game where a couple Reds had a man in Green on the floor? I caught a very brief glimpse, think it was second half and play had moved on quickly, possibly to a Welsh score. It looked to me like a Red was grasping the Irish feller warmly by the throat and not sure what his mate was up to.

I think it was AVS who mentioned Ashton’s industry. He seemed everywhere during the match. Whether that was the plan or he was desperate to get in on the action I don’t know.

England. I got an impression that we had loads of ideas and were moving the ball around really well, but…..was it lack of execution on our part, great defending by the Scot’s or something else? I know we won but at times it felt a bit like some of the games under Johnson, where we just couldn’t cross the line. That said, apart from where we made some serious screw ups I think n balancewe were much better at coming away with a score than in previous years. That may seem obvious but I think that’s a critical improvement.

Next thing. I tend to get totally sucked into the games and then have an overall impression at the end. How on earth do you lot manage to get such a technical view of what went on? Have you videographic memories? Do you rewatch them (surely not had the time yet). Or is it experience from when you played that you can immediately see the good and bad bits of your various areas of expertise? I must say that until I left school I hated rugby, my area of expertise was avoiding the school “bullies” taking advantage of the PE teacher looking the other way. I also spent a lot of time shivering on the wing not being given the ball. We weren’t allowed to go looking for it like Ashton though.

Re Howler and The Lions. If Wales have a really bad 6 Nations and that’s not a given, do you think Gats will sideline him on The Lions tour? I can’t see him being dropped but I imagine that if he loses Warren’s support then the Welsh players on the tour will see that and the Welsh National management structure will cave in. I know some of you have pointed out that may happen to Gats anyway.

Warburton – you can see the guy has so much passion for the the game and representing his country. Do you think he just gets carried away during games and forgets to lead the the troops?